Solu-Cal USA has introduced entirely new packaging for its flagship product, Solu-Cal Enhanced Calcitic Lime. The new 50 pound bag features improved coverage information, updated application rates, and enhanced PHCA Organic Humic Acid Technology branding, all while retaining the wrap design for which Solu-Cal is known.

Spanish translation of product information and application rates is included in the updated packaging, as well as QR coding for on-the-go access to spreader settings and MSDS for mobile applications. The new 50 pound Solu-Cal bags are now available for orders and qualify for the free pH meter incentive offered by Solu-Cal USA through Dec. 31.

Solu-Cal Enhanced Calcitic Lime is a brand of calcium-enriched lime for quick and efficient soil adjustment. Solu-Cal works to adjust soil pH in as little as 6 to 8 weeks. The use of patented PHCA Organic Humic/Fulvic Acid Technology in Solu-Cal significantly increases the availability of applied and stored nutrients in the soil.
 

August 8th to the 11th, the eyes of the golf world descended upon Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., for the 95th PGA Championship.  For Jeff Corcoran,  Oak Hill’s director of golf and grounds and his team, this was their opportunity to showcase not only the course, but the team's professional talents, as well.

Prior to beginning evening course maintenance on the eve of the Championship, Jeff addressed the group of more than 100 volunteers about the support Oak Hill received from the industry, specifically John Deere Golf. 

I caught up with Jeff earlier that day to talk about Oak Hill’s fairway mower of choice -- the John Deere 8000 E-Cut Hybrid. During our discussion Jeff told me about his relationship and the support he receives from the team at John Deere, which went far beyond Championship week.

For exampel, prior to the public release of the JD 8000 e-cut hybrid, Jeff worked closely with Tracy Lanier, John Deere Golf’s product manager, to put the unit through it’s paces at Oak Hill. 

“We had a retired engineer on our staff who worked with the demo unit," Jeff says. "He did four pages of notes on the unit.”

Jeff said he chuckled as he ripped the pages from the notebook and passed them on to the folks at John Deere. Myself working with iOS developers, I can tell you providing such feedback in that manner would be the last time I tested any software. However, Jeff told me John Deere is different.

“This is the best part about John Deere," he says. "Their products are tested by superintendents. They (John Deere) listen to the operators in the field and then implement things that they ask.”

So what were some of the changes Jeff wanted to see from the initially prototype?

As Jeff and I looked over the JD 8000 e-cut hybrid, he pointed out the smooth tires with beveled edges along the outside.

“The initial tire that came with the prototype were more aggressive,” Jeff says. With Oak Hill’s height of cut between .325 to .350 they started seeing more wear than they were comfortable with.  Jeff worked closely with Tracy Lanier and the team at Deere to get it just right. As a result, the tire you see today is a product of that close working relationship.

What does Jeff like most about the John Deere 8000 e-cut hybrid?  Compared to a traditional four-tire, five-unit fairway mower, Oak Hill is seeing the same quality of cut that type of mower produces, but with less of a foot print.  For example, the smooth, three-tire configuration of the JD 8000 e-cut hybrid provides a lighter pounds-per-square-inch footprint, while still maintaining enough down pressure on the cutting units to get a great cut. 

With the typical topography of a Ross design, the JD 8000 e-cut hybrid’s antiscalp wheels on the individual cutting units allows the units to “land” softer on the undulated turf.  This essentially eliminates any scalping as a mower pass is initiated. 

Oak Hill has been using the John Deere 8000 e-cut hybrid now for 3 years and I asked Jeff what is overall opinion of the mower and the quality of cut was. 

“We experienced the worst summer in Rochester, N.Y., this year and we have continued to maintain our fairway height of cut at .325 inches all summer," he says. "We have seen no adverse affects from these mowers."

 

Solu-Cal USA has introduced entirely new packaging for its flagship product, Solu-Cal Enhanced Calcitic Lime. The new 50 pound bag features improved coverage information, updated application rates, and enhanced PHCA Organic Humic Acid Technology branding, all while retaining the familiar crisp, easy-to-spot wrap design for which Solu-Cal is known. Spanish translation of product information and application rates is included in the updated packaging, as well as QR coding for on-the-go access to spreader settings and MSDS for mobile applications. The new 50 pound Solu-Cal bags are now available for orders and qualify for the free pH meter incentive offered by Solu-Cal USA through December 31.

Solu-Cal Enhanced Calcitic Lime is the premier brand of calcium-enriched lime for quick and efficient soil adjustment. Solu-Cal works rapidly to adjust soil pH in as little as 6 to 8 weeks. The use of patented PHCA Organic Humic/Fulvic Acid Technology in Solu-Cal significantly increases the availability of applied and stored nutrients in the soil. Proven to be 75% more effective than traditional pelleted lime, one 50-pound bag of Solu-Cal Enhanced Calcitic Lime is equally as effective as four 50-pound bags of standard lime. In addition, Solu-Cal Enhanced Calcitic Lime is treated with a coating that results in significantly less dust during application than untreated pelletized products.

Solu-Cal products are industry proven with over 15 years of use in professional turf markets. The Solu-Cal PHCA Technology is also supported by testing at Rutgers University, Penn State University and the University of Rhode Island.

It’s a funny thing about golf and me - playing the game is by far the least enjoyable activity of the many aspects of golf.  That is probably because I am so lousy at it.

I am a great fan of players, however.  I enjoy hustling autographs from the great players and personalities in golf.  What could be more interesting than visiting golf courses themselves?  I mean, there are actually baseball fans that try to visit all the major league baseball pars, and for the most part they are all the same!  Every golf course of the thousands we have is different and unique.  We have golf course architecture to observe and study and marvel, and we have the whole scientific, academic and research field of turf to focus on.  And many of our colleague golf course superintendents fall into that near-celebrity status that results from their careers, and they are approachable and helpful and one of us. 

Honestly, what career could be more continuously interesting than one in golf course management?
   
And then there are the books of golf, all kinds of books.  If you wonder about the incredible variety of golf and golf course literature, stop in at Golf House in Far Hills, N.J., sometime and visit the USGA library.  Then you’ll see I am not exaggerating.  When we designed and built the house we retired in, a library was a key part of the floor plan.  Floor to ceiling, built-in, no sag shelves line the walls.  The mahogany finish, dark maroon carpet and my grandfather’s writing desk provide a setting that is about the antithesis of the environment I worked in for 40 years on the golf course.  It is quiet, clean and private!
   
My grandmother was a librarian, my grandfather was never far from a book, and my mom would actually date her books and reread them after a period of time.  I read all the books in our one-room school library early on.  I am always on the lookout for a unique local library funded by Andrew Carnegie when we travel. I guess I come from a love of books naturally.
   
Back in 2011, GCSAA invited a guy named Pat Williams to keynote at a GIS general session.  He was involved in professional sports, but I especially noted that he had written more than 55 books.  Pat made an interesting observation that goes to the value of reading:  “Great leaders are great readers.”  I think he has something there (notice it isn’t the other way around!).  I read an hour or so a day, which equates to a couple of books a week and around a hundred a year.  And no, I do not have a Kindle or a Nook or any other electronic reading device.  I am still an ink and paper man.
   
Over half of my library consists of golf books.  I prefer non-fiction, but golf writing covers it all – fiction, non-fiction, humor, mystery, biography and autobiography, history, art, architecture, textbooks and instruction.  There is something for everybody, regardless of taste.  About half of what I read is in the golf genre.  And I usually have a couple of books I am reading simultaneously.  Golf has been blessed with some terrific writers. Herbert Warren Wind, Jim Finnegan, Bernard Darwin, Jim Beard, Kevin Cook, Geoffrey Cornish, Andrew Greig and many others have written well-known, popular and enjoyable golf books.  Over the years, my answer to the inevitable question, “what’s your favorite book?” has varied. 

But not any more.
   
If I could own one and only one golf book, my easy choice would be Tom Morris of St. Andrews – The Colossus of Golf 1821 – 1908.  It is the magnum opus of the life of the man we credit as the first real keeper of the green with defined responsibilities.  Authors David Malcolm and Peter E. Crabtree have been well recognized for their exhaustive study of Old Tom Morris, his life and his work in golf in the last half of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century.
   
The authors were well suited to research and write this book, which was first available in 2008.  David Malcolm was born and raised in St. Andrews and grew up with the presence of Tom Morris.  He was a research geneticist who was on the faculty at St. Andrews University.  He wrote a number of articles for golf publications.  Sadly, he died in June 2011.  Peter Crabtree was an English businessman who played golf all his life.  His interest in golf history and artifacts led him to the position as founder and past president of the British Golf Collectors Society.  I am sure these men spent years uncovering the vast details of Old Tom’s life in St. Andrews.
   
Fortunately, this book was available a couple of years before our trip to St. Andrews last summer.  We spent three days in the city and this book kept us busy without ever hitting a golf ball!  I have seven other books about Tom Morris, and this newest book adds a lot of insight to them and fills in gaps.  We learn an enormous amount about Tom’s family, his playing competitors and his work in golf course management.
   
The authors, for me, accomplished the impossible – giving us a book that is actually better than Kevin Cook’s excellent 2007 book Tommy’s Honor and W.W. Tulloch’s 1908 biography The Life of Tom Morris.  They easily rank two and three in my golf library.